CNCnetPDM OPC Classic Alarm & Events (A&E) for Siemens Sinumerik 840D controllers enables you to monitor active and acknowledged alarms and events from your machines by a remote PC.
This document describes setup and test of alarm & event monitoring from Sinumerik 840D controllers that use the OPC Classic A&E Interface which is most likely the case if your controller has a Microsoft Windows OS and does NOT run Sinumerik Operate >= Version 4.5.
To directly read alarms and events from machines with Sinumerik 840D controllers connected to CNCnetPDM with your applications you can use our free Open Source Client (C-Sharp)
FIG 1: Alarm output on a Sinumerik 840D controller
It is recommended that you turn off simple sharing: Click Start->Run type in eplorer.exe click on Tools->Folder Options. In tab View uncheck ‘Use simple file sharing (Recommended)’. Click OK.
If you have the firewall enabled at the controller proceed as follows: The most simple way to avoid communication problems is to turn off the firewall. Click on Start->Settings->Control Panel->Windows Firewall. Click on Off (not recommended) followed by OK. You’re done.
If you want to keep the firewall switched on you have to adjust some settings.
Add Port 135 to exceptions
Check ‘File and Printer Sharing’
Add program ‘OPCSinumerikAlarm.exe’ (..\mmc2\opc\alarmevent\OPCSinumerikAlarm.exe)*
Click OK
* Depending on the setup of your controller these files may be stored at a different location.
FIG 2: Firewall settings on Sinumerik 840D
Restart the controller in normal mode to enable HMI again.
PC SETUP
DCOM GENERAL
Either click on Start->Programs->Administrative Tools->Component Services or Start->Run and type in dcomcnfg and click OK
Expand Component Services->Computers->My Computer
Right click My Computer select Properties
Open tab Default Properties
Make sure that Enable Distributed COM on this computer is checked
Important: In case your PC runs an Operating System > XP, e.g. Windows 7 AND the controller PC runs Operating System Windows NT 4.0 you mandatorily have to set 'Default Authentication Level' in tab 'Default Properties' to 'None' otherwise you just get an 'Access denied' output from the test programs and the device driver! You also have to reboot your PC for these changes to take effect.
NETWORK ACCESS TO CONTROLLER
For successful communication between PC and controller it is necessary that the querying computer is able to access the controller and its Operating System via the network with proper credentials!
Typically the account you’re using on your PC does NOT have the rights to access the controller. To resolve this you need to setup an additional account:
Right click ‘This PC’ on your desktop and select Manage
Expand Local Users and Groups
Right click on ‘Users’ and select ‘New User’
In ‘User name’ enter ‘auduser’ (without quotes)
In ‘Password’ enter the password for user ‘auduser’ used at the controller, (typically ‘SUNRISE’)
Confirm the password, uncheck ‘User must change password at next logon’, click button Create followed by Close
Right click on username ‘auduser’, select Properties
In tab ‘Member Of’ click button Add and type in Administrators, click button Check Names followed by OK
Close the Properties dialog by clicking on OK
Test access to your controller:
Start Explorer (%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe) on your desktop
In the address field input two backslash characters followed by the IP Address or DNS Hostname of your controller e.g. \\192.168.1.100 and press enter.
A dialog window that asks for credentials opens.
For username type in a dot ‘.’ followed by a backslash ‘\’ and ‘auduser’ e.g. ‘.\auduser’
Type in the password and press enter.
If no error message pops up you’re done otherwise check your controller and firewall setup.
DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE
LICENSING
If you have installed CNCnetPDM on your PC with a license other than a ‘free license’ and run this program from the folder where CNCnetPDM is installed you can monitor ALL alarms & events output by your controller, otherwise only the first one. Please see licensing for details or contact us if you have any questions.
Note: If you like to run this program from a different location on your PC you can simply copy your CNCnetPDM.ini file to this directory.
SOFTWARE SETUP & USAGE (PC)
Download AEClient.zip and extract all files to a folder on your PC.
In case you use a firewall at your PC or your company network please make sure that there is an exception for TCP Port 135. As the ports for OPC communication are dynamically assigned you also have to add an exception for program AEClient.exe. You can use our tool Device Port Scanner to check if your controller is reachable via port 135.
Note: The program requires .NET Framework 2 components to be installed on your PC.
Note: If your PC does NOT have any OPC programs installed you need to install the x86 version of the OPC core components:
CNCnetPDM OPC CLASSIC A&E CLIENT
The program enables you to connect to your controller via the OPC Classic A&E interface and monitor active and acknowledged alarms and events.
Right click AEClient.exe with the shift key pressed and select ‘Run as different user’. Enter a dot ‘.’ and backslash ‘\’ followed by user name ‘auduser’ and its password.
In AEClient.exe enter the DNS Hostname or IP Address of your controller into the textbox right to [Connect] (1).
FIG 3: Connect Alarm & Events Client
Click [Connect] you now should be connected to the OPC Alarm & Events server on your controller.
FIG 4: Alarm & Events Client
If there are any active alarms on your controller the program outputs them in a list in the upper area of the dialog. The list contains:
Event Time: Date and time since when the event is active
Severity: Severity of the event (possible values 1 - 1000)
Source: Source of the event e.g. PLC or PARTPROGRAM
Condition: Alarm number of the event
State: State of the event. Active events show up in red with a red icon as ‘Enabled, Active, Not Acknowledged’. For acknowledged events you see a green icon with grey text ‘Enabled, Acknowledged’
Message: Text output by the OPC A&E Server associated with the alarm number (condition) of the event.
If you click on one of the events you can see its details in the lower area of the dialog (7).
If you right click on an event you can either delete this event or clear all events in the dialog. You can also acknowledge the event if permitted by the A&E Server.
Clicking on [Subscription] -> [Subscription State] enables you to deactivate/activate the current subscription, set a buffer time and a maximum size for messages from the A&E Server.
[Subscription] -> [Filer Settings] allows to select the event types that should be acquired and minimum/maximum values for severity of alarms and events that should be output.
If you deselect [Overwrite old notifications] in [Settings] acknowledged alarms are shown as separate entries in the list, otherwise active alarms are overwritten once acknowledged.
If you’re done, click on [Disconnect].
TROUBLESHOOTING
In case of errors the program outputs an error log file (Log + date.txt) that can be found in the directory where the program is located. This file contains detailed information about any errors.
If you see a popup window with ‘CoCreateInstanceEx: The RPC server is unavailable’ check that the controller is running, you typed in the correct IP Address and you configured your firewall correctly.
If the program outputs an error that contains: 'Interface not registered' make sure that you have the OPC core components installed.
If you shut down AEClient.exe via Task Manager or it crashes the process OPCSinumerikAlarm.exe at the controller keeps running and refuses any new connections. In this case you can either, if possible, terminate OPCSinumerikAlarm.exe directly at the controller or restart the controller.
SERVICE MODE
Steps for booting the PCU in service mode:
Switch on the PCU.
When the prompt 'Please select the operating system to start:' is displayed, press the KEY until the line below SINUMERIK is highlighted in white.
Confirm the selection by pressing the INPUT KEY.
The service menu opens:
FIG 5: Service menu
Select the menu option: 4 Start Windows (Service Mode).
Then select the menu option:
Standard Windows (without starting SINUMERIK HMI)
The PCU restarts.
When prompted to enter "Password:" Enter your service password (default: SUNRISE)
This password authorizes you to make extensive changes to the control. The password must be entered in upper case letters.
After the PCU has booted in service mode you can configure MS Windows components.
